Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion
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Opinion page editor Rick Holmes and other writers blog about national politics and issues. Holmes & Co. is a Blog for Independent Minds, a place for a free-flowing discussion of policy, news and opinion. This blog is the online cousin of the Opinion section of the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham, Mass. As such, our focus starts there and spreads to include Massachusetts, the nation and the world. Since successful blogs create communities of readers and writers, we hope the \x34& Co.\x34 will also come to include you.

One of my larger clients, a major international construction company, is no longer providing health insurance coverage for its workers thanks to Obama. In fact, the vast majority of the workers are losing hours and other benefits as well. The human resources office did offer to help its workers (the term “employee” is no longer being used) with the new socialist exchanges paperwork. And here’s what we’ve learned. Most of the workers can’t afford the premiums in the six states where most workers live. Any worker under the age of 26 who needs a federal handout (known as a “subsidy”) to cover the cost is being asked for financial information from their parents. Apparently, the language which states that folks who are dependents according to IRS language may keep their parents coverage until 26, is being interpreted as, if you can’t afford the premiums, you must be dependent, and your parents have to be unable to carry you before you get your welfare component of health are coverage from our friend the government. By yesterday, the Worker Management Office (once called Human Resources) was being flooded with calls from workers under the age of 26, many of them with wives and children, who were stating that they were being told to provide their parents’ financial information in order to qualify for subsidized policies, and they just weren’t going to do it. We had a sort of inkling of this about four months ago. When I posted about the various proposals that Democrats and Republicans seemed to agree on, and Obama promised to veto, one of the proposed changes was in the definitions section of the law to address problems like this. The bottom line is that one immediate effect of Obamatax is that if you are 25, married with kids and you’ve just lost your insurance coverage, you can’t get coverage until you prove that your parents can’t pay. And god knows what happens in that married family–do you have to prove that both can’t provide? 1000 people who had health care last month and none today.
This is from Parker’s column in the MWDN:
“What is ready, and adorable, is a sampler of new ads aimed at children who are still fretful about the new plan. Oh, wait, no. The ads, featuring baby ducks and kittens – purring and feeling ducky about Obamacare – are aimed at adults. They’re certifiably cute, but one can’t escape the thought that the federal government has skipped all pretense at treating Americans as adults. Naptime, anyone?”
With regard to the shut down, Obama has promised to turnoff the video feed of cute panda cubs.
And now we are infantilizing construction workers with children–people who have enough pride left to forego insurance rather than crawl back to the womb for their health insurance. Looks like none of the workers in that construction company are going to have health insurance thanks to Obama. Or maybe anyone under 26 who values independence from their parents.
Just one more boxcar in the train wreck that is Obama’s signature attack on America’s values.